Digital & print resources available

IRIS offers a variety of resources for the
seismological community and general public
including online interactive materials,
regular newsletters, brochures,
webinars, past event materials. We also offer
digital copies of our proposals and reviews
for download.

Over the past thirty plus years, the field of seismology has continued to evolve as new ideas, technologies, and analytical techniques have become available and new scientific questions have been identified. This workshop will focus on recent, cutting-edge developments in seismology, including the rapid expansion of seismology into new, non-traditional areas, improvements in instrumentation and data processing, and the integration of seismology with related disciplines in the solid Earth sciences.

Plenary Sessions

There is no better target than subduction zones when it comes to multi-disciplinary, collaborative, and integrative science. This session aims to explore different aspects of subduction zones to enhance communication between different fields and advance our understanding.

While researchers have long studied and appreciated the rich content of seismic waveforms, the last decade has witnessed a renaissance in the breadth of applications of seismology. This is a direct response to society’s need to better track and understand the changing dynamics of the Earth. No discipline better captures the literal “pulse of the planet” than seismology. This session highlights the breadth of these applications and the scientific targets that are quickly becoming standard fields of application in seismology including:

Surface processes: landslides, river erosion, bedload transport

Oceans: seismic oceanography, ocean noise, whale migration

Hydrology: ground/surface water, poroelasticity

Climate: sea ice, polar studies, microseism evolution

Glaciers: iceberg calving, outburst floods, bedload assessment

Nexus of Technology and Methodology: Pushing the Limits of ResolutionOrganizers: Katie Keranen and Fan-Chi Lin

Advances in instrument technology toward smaller, more portable sensors have revolutionized data acquisition, which allows for rapid deployment of thousands of sensors for continuous recording. This session highlights projects that use large data sets to push the limits of resolution in subsurface imaging.

Large N/extreme large N experiments and advancements in interferometric techniques

The USArray Flex Array program was designed to provide higher resolution targeted data to augment the Transportable Array. Numerous projects are successfully blending multiple scales of data such as concurrent FA/TA deployments and coincident active/passive data acquisition. This session highlights advances in integration of seismic data across multiple scales.

The Legacy of the Transportable ArrayOrganizers: Robin Matoza and Frank Vernon

The brief two-year installation of the Transportable Array (TA) provided a high-resolution seismic snapshot of much of North America. In many regions, however, the TA changed the long-term research and monitoring capabilities as well as introducing new technologies or expanding the footprint of existing facilities. The TA has proven its reach far beyond its nominal two-year seismic installation. This session highlights science derived from facilities that were created, or permanently changed, by the passage of the TA.

Beyond the Workstation: Seismology in a Post-Desktop WorldOrganizers: Chuck Ammon and Chen Ji

The number of networked accelerometers in the world is several orders of magnitude larger than it was a decade ago. Efforts to build dedicated networks of low cost seismology-specific sensors are complemented by the explosive growth of smart phones and the so-called Internet of Things. These sensor revolutions are matched by new ways of distribution and even processing the data they produce. Techniques that once required weeks of research time are becoming near real-time open-source commodities available to the full community. These changes represent paradigm shifts in how seismology is done. This session seeks to stimulate thinking about the future of seismology by showcasing science that aggregates these networks or helps facilitate the use of disparate instrumentation.

Science with low cost, built-in, or “personal” seismographs

“Dirt-to-desktop” automated handling of data and metadata

New opportunities for seismology education and outreach

How do/can research-grade tools shape the immediate response to large earthquakes and tsunamis?

Recent progress in joint data management/sharing

Applications to earthquake early warning systems

What research is well poised to become “on demand” in the near future?

Special Interest Group (SIG) Meetings

There are many ways to leverage social media for personal and societal gain. Broader impact requirements can be developed using blogs, webinars, open source software/data, citizen science projects, and massive open online courses (MOOCs). Scientists can reach directly to the public and answer their questions, or connect to other researchers to discuss recent events or publications. However, efforts online can also devolve into a black hole of wasted time on click bait, trolling, and pseudoscience. Here we would like to bring together people who are interested in developing the online seismology community in rewarding and productive ways. We will have "pop-up" presentations (≤5 minutes) on specific examples of using social media as a tool in research, teaching, or outreach and conclude with open discussion on how we can better utilize the online platform.

Best Practices in Observational Seismological Research and EducationConveners: Meghan Miller and Danielle Sumy

Have you ever felt like you reinvent the wheel, either in your classroom or out in the field? Wonder what you will teach in a few weeks, and ask yourself if these resources are already out there? Wish you could have a PASSCAL technician with you on every field deployment? Join us at this community forum to discover what education and field resources already exist within the IRIS website and databases, and voice your opinion to help both IRIS EPO and IS identify and document best practices material.

As the end of the formal EarthScope program approaches, it is timely for the geosciences community to work towards synthesis of multiple types of data focused on a single region or topic. For example, data from USArray, PBO, and SAFOD activities could be linked with results from other disciplines. EarthScope science offers many opportunities for synthesis, both within and between disciplines. Over the next four years, the EarthScope National Office at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will support a series of roughly 10 EarthScope Synthesis Workshops, each of which will bring a small group of scientists together from multiple disciplines.

This SIG will (1) explain the process for submitting (and selecting) synthesis workshops, (2) explain the expected products for the workshops, (3) seek feedback from attendees on how to use the workshops to effectively synthesize all EarthScope results (for example, focus on regionalization or on processes?), and (4) introduce the first four workshops. We encourage others to consider proposing synthesis workshops.

Current software tools used for data processing in earthquake seismology have much in common with the way instrumentation was prior to the birth of IRIS. In the same way instrumentation was custom developed at a few places in the 1970s, in software today we have a heterogeneous mix of stuff developed independently by multiple groups. Just as mixing instrumentation in field experiments was a problem in the 1970s mixing software tools today is a challenge that is limiting progress in the field. Most existing tools are based on archaic concepts that limit performance, interoperability, and maintainability. The objective of this SIG is to identify short-term and long-term goals to address this problem.

Work/Life Balance and Time Management: How to Increase Productivity while Staying SaneConveners: Danielle Sumy and Christian Poppeliers

Ever wonder how to balance professional and personal priorities, or how you’ll fit all of those priorities in your day-to-day life? The IRIS Early Career Investigators (ECI) Working Group has asked five panelists to read a different book on work/life balance and time management strategies and implement the suggested work/life balance techniques. The panelists will report back to the community about what worked, what didn’t, and what will become a mainstay in their daily/weekly routine. Our panelists represent a range of career stages and trajectories, from junior and senior professionals in the academy, research, and industry. Come hear about the pros/cons of different work/life balance and time management strategies, and walk away with tips and tricks that will help you maintain balance and stay sane! (We acknowledge the Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration Postdoctoral Development Program for the idea.)Panelists:
Luciana Astiz, National Science Foundation
Pete Davis, Director of Project IDA, Global Seismographic Network
Maureen Long, Associate Professor, Yale University
Jay Pulliam, W. M. Keck Foundation Professor of Geophysics, Baylor University
Wes Thelen, Cascade Volcano Observatory, USGS

IRIS is pleased to announce that a Wavefields Demonstration Community Experiment will be conducted this summer in northern Oklahoma. An experiment oversight committee has been assembled and approved by the IRIS Board to guide the execution of this experiment. This experiment will make use of cutting-edge three-component nodal-type sensors. These 5Hz sensors are about the size of a paint can, have onboard GPS timing, and can run independently for up to 30 days. IRIS plans to deploy these sensors as a piggyback to an existing nodal deployment led by Katie Keranen. The deployment will take advantage of the 1000+ single channel nodes and 45 broadband sensors from Keranen (data available after moratorium) with instruments provided by IRIS and IRIS community members (~300+ 3-C nodes, 40+ broadbands, and 10 infrasound sensors) to be deployed in the same area. The experiment design is a collaboration between PIs Keranen (Cornell University); Heather DeShon, Brian Stump, Chris Hayward (Southern Methodist University); Michael Brudzinski (University of Miami-Ohio); Susan Bilek (New Mexico Tech); Marianne Karplus (University of Texas - El Paso); FanChi Lin (University of Utah); Chuck Langston (University of Memphis); and Xiaowei Chen (University of Oklahoma).

Engaging undergraduate students in research, in the classroom and the field/labConveners: John Taber and Steve Jaume

Early exposure to research experiences has been shown to be effective in the recruitment of students, improving the retention in degree programs, and contributing to overall increased student success. This is particularly true for students from underrepresented minorities, and therefore may provide an opportunity to increase diversity in the geosciences, particularly if opportunities are provided early enough. However, student ability to engage in research varies considerably from freshman and sophomores who have limited content exposure and research skills, to seniors who are ready to engage in graduate-level independent research. This SIG will explore options to provide research experiences for undergraduates throughout their educational careers. This will include discussions of how to include simple yet authentic seismology research in the classroom for freshman and sophomores as well as more in-depth options for older students. Successful examples from the geoscience and seismology communities will be presented, both for classroom and independent research. A goal of the discussion will be to share potential approaches, tools and resources that would help lower the barrier for faculty to involve undergraduates in research activities earlier in their careers.

As the volume of archived seismic data increases, the need to have these data processed in new and more powerful computational systems has become more important. A new working group at IRIS, the High Performance Computing and Seismic Data Working Group (HPCWG), will focus on the use of the seismic data available in the IRIS DMC storage systems within high performance computing environments. The HPCWG will address data-driven seismological research requiring HPC resources, either for data processing or for simulation-based data assimilation. This SIG seeks input from seismic data users or seismic modelers who envision opportunities for computational resources.

This SIG will focus on the status of broad- and intermediate- period station design, with an emphasis on quick deploy boxes. As the interest in deploying ever larger numbers of instruments for long term and/or broad/intermediate-band seismic deployments grows, so too does a need to be able to deploy the ancillary equipment (digitizers/dataloggers, batteries, GPS units, solar panels, etc) in an efficient and robust manner to decrease deployment time and increase the likelihood of successful data collection.

Open Sesame: Piping more data into the public domainConveners: Wang-Ping Chen, Tim Ahern and Xiufen Zheng

According to statistics reported at the 2014 Workshop, an overwhelming majority of data traffic from the IRIS DMS goes to places where few data have been contributed. To address this imbalance, we propose an SIG that will invite a small number of seismologists, who have successfully opened data archives to the public, to share their experience in this respect. Their talks will serve as launch points for identifying various factors that hinder opening up more data, and for brainstorming ideas that can help alleviate the imbalance. The proposed co-chairs have personal experience in this regard and plan to invite some key speakers from China, Japan and Taiwan to address this SIG.

PARTICIPANT SUPPORT:

Three (3) nights lodging and up to $500 travel reimbursement for organizing committee and speakers, Board of Directors, and Standing Committee and Advisory Committee Chairs

Lodging (double occupancy) and travel support for 40 students (Students have been selected and notified.)

The reduced group room rate is $145/night USD (single/double occupancy), $155/night USD (triple occupancy), and $165/night USD (quad occupancy). In addition an 8.4% sales tax, 2.0% occupancy tax, and a $2.00 Tourism Promote Assessment charge will be billed to each room night charge. The cut-off date to make room reservations is May 13, 2016. It is crucial that you make your reservations before the cut-off date as the group rate will not be offered after that time. Please visit this website to make your reservations.

GROUND TRANSPORTATION:

Reservations for the Blue Star Shuttle service can be made by calling 800-247-2272. They charge $16/one way.

Taxis are also readily available at the airport to the Hilton for around $30/one way.

If you're driving to the hotel from PDX: I-205 North over Glen Jackson bridge into Washington, the first exit onto Hwy. 14 W., towards Vancouver, stay on Hwy. 14 approx. 7 mi., follow signs into City Ctr, go left, follow signs to 6th St., hotel corner of 6th and Columbia.

Self-Parking ($16/night) and Valet Parking ($22/night) are available at the Hilton.

PARKING:

Overnight Hotel Guests: Parking is located in the underground garage on Columbia Street between 5th and 6th Streets, on the East side of the hotel. Self-Parking is at a discounted rate of $16/day. There are a limited number of discounted parking passes so this will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. Overnight guests will need to check into the hotel first to receive a key to access the hotel's parking garage.

Day Guests (attending meetings, events or restaurant dining in Gray's At the Park): There is parking available at the Vancouver Center Building's "Park & Go" garage located on 6th Street between Columbia and Washington Streets. Fees are $0.75 an hour and payment can be made at the meter for the amount of time needed, just attached the payment receipt to the driver's side window.